Kuro was standing in his training clearing staring across the area at 3 men from his training partners. His next training exercise was to improve his kidou skills. The elder had instructed him to spar with them without using any physical skills. They were different sizes. One was tall and bulky. The others were shorter and thin. Kuro didn't worry about the tall guy. His big build suggested that he was slow and had low evasion. The thin guys looked swift. They might make accuracy of his spells low.

"Begin!" screamed the elder. At his call, the two small guys sprung forward in a pincer motion on Kuro's either side. He surged his power and chanted out the first spell in his planned combo.

"May the black sounds of those that have felt death emit and destroy! Hado #7: Black Thunder!"

A wave of black reiatsu burst from Kuro's body ringing with a loud booming noise that echoed through the whole clearing. It spread out in a wide area and pressured both attackers into stopping their advance. Kuro's plan had worked even more than he had thought. The wave reached the other side of the field and stunned the third man in the back. Kuro fired a spell at the two closer opponents, taking advantage of their bent postures.

"Hado #13: Killer Bee!"

Swarms of tiny yellow lightning bolts poured from Kuro's fingertips of both his hands. They flew to both sides, heading for his targets. Before they could connect, the smothering effect of his black thunder wore off and both men jumped out of the way, leaving the bolts to disperse harmlessly in the grass. They circled around him even further, causing him to lose sight of one of them as he kept his eyes on the left one. He fired a third kido in an attempt to slow his movement.

"Bakudo #30: Beak-Stab Triple Beam!"

Three light beams formed in front of Kuro and fired in unison at the quick opponent. He nimbly dodged 2 of them by ducking and leaping, but the third just managed to pierce his clothes and pin him to a tree that he was passing. Kuro tried to cast another kido, but was immediately knocked off his feet. The other fast runner had taken advantage of Kuro's lack of readiness and punched him hard in the back of the head. Kuro fell forward and used his hands to acrobatically somersault back to his feet. He decided to disregard the pinned man for now and focus on the other quick one.

The opponent that had just slugged him was standing Kuro about 20 feet away. Kuro caught sight of him as he turned away from the pinned guy. Suddenly, the opponent began an obvious straight charge heading right for Kuro. Kuro was too surprised for a moment and didn''t get a chance to cast kido. He raised his hands too late and the man was in his face in an instant. But instead of hitting Kuro, he put both hands on Kuro's shoulders and vaulted himself over Kuro. Kuro's gaze went to follow his leap, but was suddenly drawn to the large man standing right behind him. Kuro had been so focused on keeping track of the quick men that he had forgotten about the built opponent. He hadn't even noticed that the large man had advanced behind the quick man while Kuro's gaze had been distracted. Kuro's shallow assurance that the large man wouldn't be a problem was shattered as his fist slammed into Kuro's stomach.

Kuro heaved and winced on the ground as he felt the pain from the attack. Luckily, there didn't seem to be any internal injuries. He painfully stumbled back to his feet and started to take the fight on a whole new level of seriousness. His face folded into his battle glare as he asessed the battle more closely. He quickly came up with a plan and started acting on it. Turning back to the man pinned to the tree, Kuro fired a concentrated hado at him so he would be knocked out of the fight and pose no surprises when he got free.

"Hado #4: Pale Lightning!"

A concentrated bolt of lightning leapt from Kuro's finger and struck the man in the side. The pain made him spasm for a moment before he fell unconscious. Kuro turned around to see the other opponents charging him again in the same way as before. This time he did notice the large man and smiled to himself at their foolishness thinking the same trick would work on a shinigami twice. He did not resist as the runner leapt over his shoulders again, leading them to believe that he was too late to react, just like he had before. But when the brutish man raised his fist to strike, Kuro was ready. Raising one hand, he met the man's fist with his palm.

"Bakudo #8: Repulse!"

A round shield of energy appeard in front of Kuro's palm and met the man's fist head on. A twitch ran through his whole body as the energy from the shield caused his whole body to go into paralysis for a second. The fast man saw that Kuro had stopped their combo and circled back to strike Kuro from behind before he could knock the big guy out. Kuro had planned for this move as well. With one last smile, he poured his spirit power into his body and announced his victory along with his spell.

"Checkmate... Hado #20: White Crawl!"

A sphere shaped surge of energy burst from Kuro's body and washed over both opponents. The energy instantly knocked them out, but otherwise caused no harm. Kuro smiled as he walked over to the cooking fires to grab a bite of lunch before the elder hauled him off to his next training session.

(ooc: this whole thread is going to be for kidou mastery attempts)

Nice work

+ 2 Kidou Mastery

Kuro had been given a day off today from training, but he just took that as a free day to train how he wanted. Strolling off into the woods after making sure nobody was following him, he picked a densely grown area filled with many large trees growing close together. Since he didn't have the villagers to worry about, he warmed up for the exercise by flexing his reiatsu level out as wide and heavy as he could. As soon as he felt his energy was in good condition, he started his training. Today was an endurance session that doubled as a review quiz. He was going to cast and use all the way of destruction spells he was capable of, trying to remember them all.

Kuro picked up a rock about as big as his fist off the ground. Tossing it up into the air in front of him, he held his palm up facing it and recited the first spell.

"Hado #1: Thrust!"

The rock was pushed by an invisible force of energy high into the air, further away from where Kuro stood. Before he lost sight of it, he cast again.

"Hado #2: Reel!"

The rock suddenly changed flight direction and flew back towards Kuro. He caught it in his stretched out hand. Smiling to himself, he dropped the rock. He then turned to face a wide tree in front of him and gathered spirit energy for the next spell.

"Hado #3: Crimson Strike!"

A small beam of light red energy burst out of Kuro's palm and scorched the bark of the targeted tree. Kuro aimed for the blackened bark as he cast the fourth kido.

"Hado #4: Pale Lightning!"

A concentrated bolt of blue energy gathered in Kuro's left index finger and leapt at the tree. Some of the bark was blown off by this strike. Kuro had to breathe deeply for a few seconds to ease his spirit energy. He wasn't used to casting multiple kidos this close together. For the next spells, he chose a shorter tree as his target.

"Hado #5: Disarm!"

The thinner branches of the short tree whipped back and lost many of their leaves as the spell hit the tree. Kuro immediately cast his next spell before the leaves even hit the forest floor.

"Hado #6: Rain of Pain!"

Spirit energy gathered above the short tree and let down drops of energy that resembled raining water. As the drops hit the tree, mild scorch marks began to dot its bark and many more of its leaves were lost as they burned away. Kuro felt a little bad about ending such a young tree's life, but poured a bit of extra energy into his next spell to put it out of its misery.

"Hado #7: Black Thunder!"

A wave of darkened spirit energy burst out of Kuro's body and surged over the damaged tree. It groaned with a loud creaking noise as the energy weighed down on it and many of its branches snapped off, clattering to the ground. Kuro cast his next spell aiming for the trunk of the now ruined tree.

"Hado #8: Blade of Flames!"

Kuro's hand glowed bright red as it filled with energy. A flaming blade of reiatsu stretched out of his clenched fist. He took this weapon and with one swipe, clove horizontally through the tree trunk. He turned back to the first tree dissolving his spell as the trunk behind him fell to the ground. He walked up to the giant tree and placed his hand on it's charred front while casting his next spell.

"Hado #11: Reading Lightning."

Electricity surged in his hand and traveled into the tree, but no obvious effect was witnessed. As expected, though trees are 'alive' they show no pain. Kuro stood back again and took a deep breath before casting the next kido he remembered.

"Hado #12: Needle Release."

Sharp quills of spirit energy burst from Kuro's skin all over his torso, arms, and hands. He did not concentrate to maintain them and let them sink back into his body. Raising his hands to aim at the tree again, he chanted, "Hado #13: Killer Bee."

Tiny yellow needles of spirit energy swarmed out of Kuro's finger tips and peppered the tree's bark with more burns and holes. Kuro was breathing heavily now as he tried to keep his energy in check. He only had six spells to go that he remembered.

"Hado #20: White Crawl." he spoke again without much enthusiasm.

A burst of spirit energy flashed out of his body with no effect on the surrounding area. There were no living things to knock out so that kido had no real target. Kuro pointed up at the tree canopy as he readied his energy for another casting.

"Hado #21: White Lunar Spear Shot."

A streak of white spirit energy flew out of Kuro's finger and gathered in the sky in the shape of a crescent moon. After identifying Kuro's intended tree target, it fired a white line of energy down back through the canopy colliding with the scarred front of the tree with a loud explosion. When the dust settled, Kuro could see that most of the bark around his target area was gone and the blast had dug a few inches into the tree's wood. Taking his zanpakuto, he cut into his right palm and let his blood drip down his hand. He grimaced from the initial cut, but was determined to practice his kido. He drew back his bleeding hand and called out the next spell.

"Hado #22: Blood Daggers!"

Spirit energy from Kuro's hand mixed with the blood flowing from his palm and formed into three dark crimson kunais clutched in his hand. He flung his hand out and tossed all three of them at the tree where they thudded into the exposed wood before fading away. Now Kuro was starting to feel fatigued. His instincts were telling him to call it quits for the day, but he was determined to improve. He readied his dwindling power and cast the next attack.

"Hado #23: 36 Pound Cannon!"

A condensed blast of air mixed with spirit energy flew from in front of Kuro into the wood of the tree where it sent splinters flying. Kuro wasted no time calling the next kido out.

"Hado #24: Water Slicing Blade!"

A line of blue spirit energy formed on the ground and arced like a striking snake up into the air sailing at the targeted tree. It cut deeper into the heart of the tree with Kuro dashing right behind it. He gathered the last of his spent energy sources and called out the last hado that he was capable of casting. That would likely change as a result of this training.

"H-hado #27: Reshi Blade!"

Spirit energy gathered on Kuro's left forearm in the curved form of a sickle blade. He dashed past the tree that had taked his beating and swiped at it with this spiritual weapon. But his attack did nothing more to the tree as the reishi blade dissolved as it met the obstacle. Kuro's stamina was spent and he fell down on the ground amid the leaves and random tree fragments in a well deserved sleep.

+ 1.5 Kidou Master